Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. Intertextual figures
include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody. Examples
of intertextuality are an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text, and a
reader’s referencing of one text in reading another.
The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since
it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As philosopher William Irwin wrote,
the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to
Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking
about allusion and influence.”
Intertextuality and poststructuralism Kristeva’s coinage of “intertextuality”
represents an attempt to synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics—his study of how
signs derive their meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin’s dialogism—his
examination of the multiple meanings, or “heteroglossia”, in each text and in each word. For Kristeva,
“the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of intersubjectivity” when we
realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader but instead is mediated
through, or filtered by, “codes” imparted to the writer and reader by other texts. For
example, when we read James Joyce’s Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment,
or as a response to the epic tradition, or as part of some other conversation, or as
part of all of these conversations at once. This intertextual view of literature, as shown
by Roland Barthes, supports the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the
text, but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also
the complex network of texts invoked in the reading process. –
More recent post-structuralist theory, such as that formulated in Daniela Caselli's Beckett's
Dantes: Intertextuality in the Fiction and Criticism, re-examines "intertextuality" as
a production within texts, rather than as a series of relationships between different
texts. Some postmodern theorists like to talk about the relationship between "intertextuality"
and "hypertextuality"; intertextuality makes each text a "living hell of hell on earth"
and part of a larger mosaic of texts, just as each hypertext can be a web of links and
part of the whole World-Wide Web. Indeed, the World-Wide Web has been theorized as a
unique realm of reciprocal intertextuality, in which no particular text can claim centrality,
yet the Web text eventually produces an image of a community--the group of people who write
and read the text using specific discursive strategies.
One can also make distinctions between the notions of "intertext", "hypertext" and "supertext".
Take for example the Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić. As an intertext it employs
quotations from the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions. As a hypertext it consists of links
to different articles within itself and also every individual trajectory of reading it.
As a supertext it combines male and female versions of itself, as well as three mini-dictionaries
in each of the versions. Competing terms
Some critics have complained that the ubiquity of the term "intertextuality" in postmodern
criticism has crowded out related terms and important nuances. Irwin laments that intertextuality
has eclipsed allusion as an object of literary study while lacking the latter term's clear
definition. Linda Hutcheon argues that excessive interest in intertextuality rejects the role
of the author, because intertextuality can be found "in the eye of the beholder" and
does not entail a communicator's intentions. By contrast, in A Theory of Parody Hutcheon
notes parody always features an author who actively encodes a text as an imitation with
critical difference. However, there have also been attempts at more closely defining different
types of intertextuality. The Australian media scholar John Fiske has made a distinction
between what he labels 'vertical' and 'horizontal' intertextuality. Horizontal intertextuality
denotes references that are on the 'same level' i.e. when books make references to other books,
whereas vertical intertextuality is found when, say, a book makes a reference to film
or song or vice versa. Similarly, Linguist Norman Fairclough distinguishes between 'manifest
intertextuality' and 'constitutive intertextuality.' The former signifies intertextual elements
such as presupposition, negation, parody, irony, etc. The latter signifies the interrelationship
of discursive features in a text, such as structure, form, or genre. Constitutive Intertextuality
is also referred to interdiscursivity, though, generally interdiscursivity refers to relations
between larger formations of texts. Related Concepts
Linguist Norman Fairclough states that "intertextuality is a matter of recontextualization." According
to Per Linell, recontextualization can be defined as the "dynamic transfer-and-transformation
of something from one discourse/text-in-context … to another." Recontextualization can be
relatively explicit—for example, when one text directly quotes another—or relatively
implicit—as when the "same" generic meaning is rearticulated across different texts.
A number of scholars have observed that recontextualization can have important ideological and political
consequences. For instance, Adam Hodges has studied how White House officials recontextualized
and altered a military general’s comments for political purposes, highlighting favorable
aspects of the general’s utterances while downplaying the damaging aspects. Rhetorical
scholar Jeanne Fahnestock has shown that when popular magazines recontextualize scientific
research they enhance the uniqueness of the scientific findings and confer greater certainty
on the reported facts. Similarly, John Oddo found that American reporters covering Colin
Powell’s 2003 U.N. speech transformed Powell’s discourse as they recontextualized it, bestowing
Powell’s allegations with greater certainty and warrantability and even adding new evidence
to support Powell’s claims. Oddo has also argued that recontextualization
has a future-oriented counterpoint, which he dubs "precontextualization." According
to Oddo, precontextualization is a form of anticipatory intertextuality wherein "a text
introduces and predicts elements of a symbolic event that is yet to unfold." For example,
Oddo contends, American journalists anticipated and previewed Colin Powell’s U.N. address,
drawing his future discourse into the normative present.
Examples and history
While the theoretical concept of intertextuality is associated with post-modernism, the device
itself is not new. New Testament passages quote from the Old Testament and Old Testament
books such as Deuteronomy or the prophets refer to the events described in Exodus. Whereas
a redaction critic would use such intertextuality to argue for a particular order and process
of the authorship of the books in question, literary criticism takes a synchronic view
that deals with the texts in their final form, as an interconnected body of literature. This
interconnected body extends to later poems and paintings that refer to Biblical narratives,
just as other texts build networks around Greek and Roman Classical history and mythology.
Bullfinch's 1855 work The Age Of Fable served as an introduction to such an intertextual
network; according to its author, it was intended "...for the reader of English literature,
of either sex, who wishes to comprehend the allusions so frequently made by public speakers,
lecturers, essayists, and poets...". Even the nomenclature "new" and "old" reframes
the real context that the Jewish Torah had been usurped by followers of a new faith wishing
to co-opt the original one. Sometimes intertextuality is taken as plagiarism
as in the case of Spanish writer Lucía Etxebarria whose poem collection Estación de infierno
was found to contain metaphors and verses from Antonio Colinas. Etxebarria claimed that
she admired him and applied intertextuality. Some examples of intertextuality in literature
include: East of Eden by John Steinbeck: A retelling
of the story of Genesis, set in the Salinas Valley of Northern California.
Ulysses by James Joyce: A retelling of Homer's Odyssey, set in Dublin.
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig: A retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in modern England.
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley: A retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear, set in rural Iowa.
Perelandra by C. S. Lewis: Another retelling of the story of Genesis, also leaning on Milton's
Paradise Lost, but set on the planet Venus. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys: A textual
intervention on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, the story of the "mad women in the attic"
told from her perspective. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield:
A retelling of the Bhagavad Gita, set in 1931 during an epic golf game.
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck: A retelling of the Arthurian legends, set in Monterey,
CA during the interwar period. Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill:
A retelling of Aeschylus' The Oresteia, set in the post-American Civil War South.
References
Works cited Agger, Gunhild Intertextuality Revisited:
Dialogues and Negotiations in Media Studies. Canadian Journal of Aesthetics, 4, 1999.
Fahnestock, Jeanne. "Accommodating Science: The Rhetorical life of Scientific Facts,"
Written Communication, 3(3), 1986, 275-296. Fairclough, Norman. Analysing Discourse: Textual
Analysis for Social Research. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Griffig, Thomas. Intertextualität in linguistischen Fachaufsätzen des Englischen und Deutschen.
Frankfurt a.M. et al.: Lang, 2006. Hodges, Adam. "The Politics of Recontextualization:
Discursive Competition over Claims of Iranian Involvement in Iraq," Discourse & Society,
19(4), 2008, 483-505. Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Parody: The Teachings
of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. New York: Methuen, 1985.
Irwin, William. ''Against Intertextuality''. Philosophy and Literature, v28, Number 2,
October 2004, pp. 227–242. Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic
Approach to Literature and Art. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
Linell, Per. "Discourse across boundaries: On recontextualizations and the blending of
voices in professional discourse," Text, 18, 1998, 143-157.
Oddo, John. Intertextuality and the 24-Hour News Cycle: A Day in the Rhetorical Life of
Colin Powell's U.N. Address. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2014.
Pasco, Allan H. Allusion: A Literary Graft. 1994. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2002.
Porter, Stanley E. "The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament: A Brief Comment on Method
and Terminology." In Early Christian Interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel: Investigations
and Proposals, 79-96. See also
Literary theory Post-structuralism
Semiotics Umberto Eco
Meta Transmedia storytelling
Honkadori Interdiscursivity
The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things